TGRadioBooks
Personal library and shared catalog: how book narration works
Use your personal library to listen to a book you upload: the file does not automatically enter the shared catalog. The catalog lets you choose books already available there. Adding text for your own listening and making a book available to other readers are separate actions. An ordinary upload does not create a public page for your file.
Choose the source that fits your task
If the book you want is already in the shared catalog, you can add it from there. If you have your own file or a public link to the text, use a personal import. A book does not need to appear in the catalog before you can listen to it yourself.
For example, you can add lecture notes you prepared through Upload a book for personal listening. That does not offer the notes to every user. Similarly, seeing a title in your library does not by itself mean that other readers can find it among publicly available books.
Import a personal book without a publication step
After signing in, open Books. Choose Upload a book for a file or Import URL for a publicly accessible address. You can also send a book to the bot. A link must lead to an accessible file or a page containing text; pages requiring sign-in or protected downloads may not import.
After importing, select the book and a voice, then press Play. Importing extracts text, while audio preparation begins when playback starts. Neither a successful import nor a ready audio passage means that the book has automatically been included in the shared catalog.
Distinguish a non-public upload from text processing
Personal uploads are not automatically published, but that does not mean all processing takes place on your device. Text passages are sent to a speech synthesis service to prepare audio. Consider this before adding material, especially when choosing between a public book and text containing personal information.
Use books and other texts you have the right to use. Possessing a file or a working link does not establish permission to distribute it publicly. Only authorised people can publish to the shared catalog; personal importing is not a way to make material available to all readers.
Separate shared reading position from local audio
Your profile is connected to your Telegram account. Use the same account to continue on another device: the listening position is saved in the profile. Signing into a different account does not open the same personal library.
Offline audio is stored locally on a particular device. For example, a chapter saved on your phone does not become an offline copy on your laptop. Save the required ready passages separately on the second device. Clearing browser storage or signing out removes local audio. Your saved position and locally stored files serve different purposes.
Check library limits before a large import
A file can be up to 10 MB, and the extracted text of one book is limited to 2 million characters. A personal library holds up to 30 books and 20 million characters in total. Even a small file can exceed a text limit or encounter a library that has reached its overall capacity.
These figures limit importing and personal library capacity. They are not a monthly narration allowance: book narration is currently free, with no monthly character limit. Before retrying an import, identify which limit applies to it: file size, extracted text length or the capacity of your library.